Incumbent mayor, ex-NBA player headed for runoff

Former Cal and professional basketball star Kevin Johnson on Tuesday surged to a sizable lead in the race to be Sacramento's mayor, but he didn't appear to have enough votes to avoid a runoff election in the fall.

Johnson led incumbent Heather Fargo by eight percentage points, but was just short of the 50 percent plus one vote required for an outright victory, as results continued to come in.

The homegrown Johnson had never run for elected office and declared his candidacy late in the game, early March. But he took advantage of his celebrity to wage a fierce battle to lead California's seventh-largest city.

By late May, Johnson, who achieved professional stardom in Phoenix, had loaned his campaign $500,000 and used former NBA players and executives and other out-of-state donors to raise at least $490,000, according to his campaign. Fargo had raised $340,000 despite having started fundraising in 2005, according to her campaign.

The short, intense race was marked by often-bitter accusations between Johnson and two-term incumbent Fargo, who are both Democrats. Supporters distributed hit pieces in mailers and online, prompting Sacramento political observers to declare the race to be one of the nastiest in recent memory.

Yet the race is for a mayoral seat that is relatively weak: The mayor represents just one vote on a City Council of nine.

Fargo, 55, pointed to her experience and intimate knowledge of the city. She was a neighborhood activist beginning in the early 1980s. She was elected to the City Council three times before becoming mayor in 2000 and has touted her advocacy for downtown development, environmental issues, libraries and parks.

Johnson criticized her for using third-party supporters to send unfair hit pieces against him and for being blind to the city's most pressing problem, public safety.

Johnson, 42, began his campaign by stressing his community service work, particularly as the founder of St. HOPE, a nonprofit group seeking to revitalize inner cities. And he sought to spread his word primarily through door-to-door precinct walks, often avoiding head-to-head debates with the other candidates. He said he would raise the national profile of Sacramento.

Yet Johnson was dogged by allegations from his past.

Critics drudged up past accusations that he'd groped or molested two girls, even though authorities said there was no evidence of wrongdoing.